Social Justice in Higher Education

Tips for Searching

Search by Words

Searching library resources are not like searching Google where you enter a phrase or question into the search box and get results. Enter words that represent the concept you are searching. You can enter multiple words using AND or OR. Don't enter a sentence or long phrase into the search box.

Use AND or OR

Use care when adding ANDs or ORs to your search.

AND will narrow your search. For every word searched with AND, the database will search for results with ALL of those words. So with each added keyword, you will get fewer results.

OR will broaden your search. This is very effective if you are not getting enough results. Search similar keywords/concepts, e.g. women or female. It's essentially doing 2 searches at once. This is useful if you are not sure what words/terms are used in articles.

Narrow By Date

Think about the date range you want to search. You can adjust the dates searched in all databases to get articles, books, movies published within a specific time range.

Search for Books, Articles, Media

If you want to search a specific type of resource, like books, articles, videos, make sure to check off the option on the left hand side.

Searching for a Journal Title

To search for a specific journal title:

Click on the Journals link on the library home page

Enter the title of the journal (or magazine or newspaper) in the search box

If you know the exact title of the journal, select Match Exact Words from the dropdown menu

This will either:

List the journal including the date ranges available and the database it is located, or

The journal will not be listed. If the title is not listed, you can request the journal's article through interlibrary loan.

Look at the results and select the title that has a date range that meets your needs.

For example, if you are looking for a current article select the entry that includes the present.

Click on the journal title. This will take you into the Journal page in the database.

From here you can search within the publication for a specific article title, keywords or issue.